Litchfield: Holidays seem to create a kindness

MORRIS - It's that time of year again, the time of giving thanks for all we have.

If you look at social media sites like Facebook, you notice even your kooky ranting friends have toned it down a notch, they may not be nice but they don't seem to be quite as nasty.

I've watched this carry into real life as Diamond Turkey Dinner served nearly 1,900 dinners.

People scurried about doing all it takes to make a three-hour dinner, with a week's full of cooking, from officials like Rep. David Welter, R-Morris, to Diamond mayor Teresa “Terry” Kernc, but also entire Boy Scout groups who helped load cars for special deliveries, and bused the tables as more came in to sit down.

I was reminded again, as a woman and I got to the checkout lane at the same time, and she said "by all means, go first."

Whether or not it's the holiday items hanging in the stores or the Christmas music being pumped over the speakers, people just seem to be nicer.

Now, before anyone comments about those crazy trampling black Friday shoppers, I'm not including them. Some of those are just nuts, and courtesy goes out the window for a few dollars.

But, overall, people tend to walk with a little more pep in their step. their smiles are more genuine and they are much politer to those they are shopping around.

Maybe that's why I'm in a better mood.

The spirit of the holidays, whether it be Thanksgiving for Christmas, or Yule or whatever your religion celebrates, is around us, showing us how we should be acting the rest of the year.

My challenge is to take that spirit past Christmas. Let's try to get it to Valentine's Day or Easter, at least, this year. If we keep making baby steps, we can provide an entire year of happy people.